About CFIS
The mission of Bard Center for Indigenous Studies (CfIS) is to develop a network of public programming focused on arts, education, and advocacy in Native American and Indigenous studies and to support students, faculty, and staff across the Bard College network .
History
The Center for Indigenous Studies began its work in November 2022, following a transformational gift from the Gochman Family Foundation. This visionary investment has enabled the Center to significantly expand commissions in support of innovative Indigenous artists and thinkers, develop new engagement and curriculum for all generations, and provide research opportunities for students, staff, and faculty throughout the Bard network. The innovative and exceptional programming work at CfIS has been stewarded since the Center’s inception by Brandi Norton (Iñupiaq) working closely with inaugural program coordinator, Melina Roise, research associate Olivia Tencer, and founding director, Christian Ayne Crouch. CfIS also continues and expands upon the work of Rethinking Place: Bard-on-Mahicantuck, a 2022-2025 Mellon Foundation “Humanities for All Times” project and supports meaningful points of academic engagement with the Bard College land acknowledgement, which was developed in cooperation with the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians in 2020.
Land Acknowledgement
In the spirit of truth and equity, it is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are gathered on the sacred homelands of the Munsee and Muhheaconneok people, who are the original stewards of the land. Today, due to forced removal, the community resides in Northeast Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We honor and pay respect to their ancestors past and present, as well as to future generations, and we recognize their continuing presence in their homelands. We understand that our acknowledgment requires those of us who are settlers to recognize our own place in and responsibilities toward addressing inequity, and that this ongoing and challenging work requires that we commit to real engagement with the Munsee and Mohican communities to build an inclusive and equitable space for all.
We also include the land acknowledgment of Bard Graduate Center, located in New York City.
Today, tribal nations and Indigenous descendant communities work tirelessly to make visible to the public these raw and painful histories of dispossession, the effects of which still shape their communities today. Please consider a donation to support the educational and cultural work of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, to assist their efforts to provide for their community and uplift their history and culture, and to help our community move towards the reconciliation that this fuller accounting of history offers.